Hello friends, Its almost after 6 months that I am coming back to Linux mint. In between I was compelled to use windows xp as 'magic jack' does not run on Linux.Now I am back to Linux and Linux mint 7 appears to be the best operating system I have ever seen till date. Keep up the good work !! For a health professional like me and all those computer illiterate guys who doesn't know any computer tweaks, Linux mint does a great job. Its simple, elegant and ofcourse user friendly.Thanks to the developers, the community, and all those people working for the open source projects. You all are a source of inspiration.

I have a simple question;does it really matter if I keep on using linux mint 7 installed inside windows xp ? (mint4win) I mean how does it differ to a regular install on the partitioned hard drive ? Thanks

niraj wrote:I have a simple question; does it really matter if I keep on using linux mint 7 installed inside windows xp ? (mint4win) ..I mean how does it differ to a regular install on the partitioned hard drive ? Thanks

does it really matter if I keep on using linux mint 7 installed inside windows xp

Not if that is how you want to or must run the OS, magic jack or needing windows applications might be that reason

--since it depends on the host's file system integrity, it will not be able to avoid problems should the host system (winXP) develop a corrupted hard drive that is on the wubi (mint4win) file areas

Its a VM style system, like virtualbox, but maybe not as good, and it is also the mint name for ubuntu's WUBI application.

I don't think you can get the full performance from an OS when it is installed inside a VM, for processor intensive applications or those that require specific access to native hardware (drivers)--you are restricting your options doing it that way

But if it suits you to use mint4win, then there is no particular reason to stop

When you install with mint4win(Wubi) it installs into a virtual partition like you can with VirtualBox.The virtual partition is just a large file on your hard drive.This is done to make sure you don't have to partition the hard drive, making it easier for new Linux users.This means you don't get the full performance of your hard drive.That makes it slower then if it was running from a separate partition on the hard drive.

hello friends,thanks drhu and merlwiz79 for your prompt answers. I have now installed linux mint 7 on my hard drive (thus overriding windows xp). And i can really feel the difference in performance between hard drive install and mint4win.thanks once again